Penny Marshall is a regular at Staples Center, a basketball fan there for Lakers and Clippers games. She’s been there for years and every staff person there will tell you how genuine and nice she is. I don’t know about that — she did cut me off once to get to the self-serve ice cream machine in the media room first, although I admit it was a Reggie Evans-level box out and you have to respect that — but to a man everybody speaks highly of her. Which is rare in L.A.

Sources tell TMZ the double-cross started at a Lakers game last month … when a man claiming to be (Lamar Odom’s) assistant gave Penny a phone number he said was Lamar’s.

We’re told Penny and the person she thought was Lamar texted back and forth for several days — when finally “Lamar” asked her to loan his assistant a chunk o’ cash. Ever the faithful Lakers fan, Penny forked over more than five grand to the faux “assistant.”

Of course, after that the assistant disappeared. TMZ says the sum is more than $5,000 and that police are investigating. Marshall’s people would not comment.

The whole thing seems odd because Odom played both for the Clippers and Lakers in the time Marshall has been a regular at Staples and she knows a lot of players. She probably has a phone full of player numbers. Plus this happened after Odom left the Lakers. Add to all that the fact it is reported by TMZ and you can decide how much you choose to believe.

plus lamar odom is married to that idiot waste of space khloe kardashian…that whole family has more money than they know what to do with so why would odom be hitting up friends for money? she probably should have given it some thought before blindly forking over the money